Drafting Technician

There is a job ad for Drafting Technician. They do Laser Cutting, Waterjet Cutting and Router Cutting. Does any one have experience with these type of machines? I wish to know whether SWX can be used here.

Well, I don't know where ömür is coming from, but I've designed many parts with SolidWorks that were cut out with laser, waterjet, plasma, torch, and who knows what else. I know a gasket making shop nearby that uses SolidWorks.

It is highly appreciated if could give link to good tutorial in your mind.

Maha,

As J. Mather has pointed out Sheet Metal may be of some use to you. The good news is that SW is offering their ecourses for free for the rest of the month. I'm almost through the Weldments course and so far it is excellent. So, I would assume the Sheet Metal one is also pretty good.

There is a job ad for Drafting Technician. They do Laser Cutting, Waterjet Cutting and Router Cutting. Does any one have experience with these type of machines? I wish to know whether SWX can be used here.

You make your models and then export DXF out of the files which can be used for these kinds of machines. If the machine can use the 3d models directly then you save lot of time by using the 3d models made in SOLIDWORKS.

There is a job ad for Drafting Technician. They do Laser Cutting, Waterjet Cutting and Router Cutting. Does any one have experience with these type of machines? I wish to know whether SWX can be used here.

I've programed CNC punch, work with suppliers on laser, waterjet and work in company with laser and waterjet.

If the company is only cutting for customer, they will not use any 3D software. You'll be lucky if they have a copy of AutoCAD.

Usually they'll take customer dxf/dwg and use it in their cutting software.

The Drafting Technician's job usually is just make sure the files are usable in the laser/plasma/waterjet.

It means checking files for open profiles, line segments too small to cut and other issues.

I hated working with 2D systems like AutoCAD. I knew too many people who would just override dimensions instead of making the actual changes required, if the change was minor. After getting bit a couple of times, we really had to clamp down on that kind of thing. It's not such a problem working with 3D modeling, but the problem I run into now is that some users don't type the actual desired dim into the sketches, they drag until the number is right. That's not always a good thing, since the number past the 3rd decimal place is often a bit off. It makes mating parts in your assembly a little problematic.

....I knew too many people who would just override dimensions instead of making the actual changes required..... It's not such a problem working with 3D modeling, but the problem I run into now is that some users ... drag until the number is right.

1. They transitioned from drafting tables to AutoCAD (this was back in '91).

2. We did address it (With much wailing and gnashing of teeth) after the first bad parts from the sheet metal shop.

3. It took some time (and a good chewing out from the boss), but things did improve. Especially when we transitioned to 3D modeling. The dragging things doesn't happen much in my dept, so it's not as bad as I made it out to be.

Most of the cutting shop I work with have no idea why the file won't cut. I need to fix the files for them.

So I don't think people there are not learning anything. Even the laser/waterjet operator I was working with don't want to learn anything, just push the button and let the machine run.

Since the Drafting Technician don't run the cutter, it's difficult to find out what's wrong. Most of the time the operator didn't setup or use the software correctly. Of course they won't say that and just blame the file. The drafting tech will be stuck between the operator and the boss and customer trying to find a solution.

If you need a job and need to start somewhere, go ahead knowing its not gonna be your career.

There are away lesson and experience to learn from every situation

BTW SolidWorks dxf is the worse since its default export setting will cause failure in most cutter software with default settings.

wow. I used solidworks for a plasma cutter to make the parts. I would even lay them out on the sheets to cut. Always had to convert to dxf. That was years ago. It may have been easier to just work with the auto cad but I did not have it at the time.

A lot of it kind of depends on what they are using to program the tables.

How long it takes kind of depends on how quickly you pick things up. I learned to program the plasma table over the phone in about 30 min. Then it took running the program and getting feed back from the operators to really optimize the programs to make things run smooth, and to get an true understanding of how to make it work properly.

There are some cutters that can read SolidWorks files and generate their flat patterns accordingly to it but as someone said most cutters use a DXF/DWG file that is 2D in order to do the cutting. You can always generate them using SolidWorks tough.

There is a job ad for Drafting Technician. They do Laser Cutting, Waterjet Cutting and Router Cutting. Does any one have experience with these type of machines? I wish to know whether SWX can be used here.

Yes, Solidworks can be used in that industry. And there are several companies in that industry that use Solidworks. The question you need to be asking, is "Does AC Waterjet use Solidworks?". And that is a question you need to ask THEM.

It's really dependent on what machines they use. Some machines will only allow G code files, others will allow a dxf or dwg and will generate the tools paths form it. Some machines will have their own special software that will do the nesting and tool path creation.

Most of the time, especially for a laser, water jet, or plasma cutter you have to have a flat pattern, like what sheet metal gives you when you flatten. For our routers, which are essentially the same but with a spindle instead of a torch/laser, I use Autocad to generate the 2D layouts and then a CAM software to generate the G code to send to the machine. If I'm working from a 3D part I put the model on a drawing format then save it as a DWG/DXF and then import it into Autocad, where working on 2D is much easier. Most CAM packages will also allow you to work off a solid model as well.

Waterjets, lasers, plasmas, wire edm...you name it they can all run with...and probably require a dxf file. At least everyone I ever worked with. You can make a dxf file from a Solidworks drawing. You answer is YES you can use solidworks in most any 2d application.

They all have there own program to create there own code..but that is no concern of yours, just feed them the dxf file and you are good to go.